I have a long-standing gripe with the increasing use of the following clause in standard contracts:

grant [insert organisation] a non-exclusive, royalty free, world-wide, irrevocable license to use your name and/or image in any form or media format for the purpose of marketing and promotional activities;

I do not want to grant organisations non-exclusive, royalty free, world-wide, irrevocable license to use my name and/or image in any form or media format, especially before I have had the opportunity to review, accept or veto how my name and image are to be used.

Why am I griping about this now? Because I went to join up to a local soccer club. You know, local, a bunch of local lasses, in my case unskilled, running around a field chasing after a ball. No glory, not really marketing material. Part of that process is registering as a player with Football Federation Australia. And apparently, a part of that process is signing away my rights to my name and image.

There are three parts to this:

I’m applying to be a player at the lowest possible level of football. I don’t believe that there is any need for marketing my name or my image so why should I have to sign my rights away?

I don’t want to be treated like a commodity in every aspect of my life. I love football, I want to play football and I want to play football with other people. Is it no longer possible to do this without signing away my name and image for commercial purposes?

I’m just a local citizen, playing a local game. I kinda wish I was entitled to some degree of privacy and for people to ask first and specify exactly how my name and image is to be used for all time on a case by case basis, not just a blanket, generic clause “for advertising and marketing material.”

Is this clause in the spirit of the Football Federation Australia’s privacy policy? Or the Privacy Act in general?

Here I was ready to pay my $340 for the winter season, excited to play football again and now I’m seriously questioning why I should agree to the registration form. If I sign the form (it’s the only way I know of to play competitive football locally) then I’m just one more commodity kicking a ball. And that makes me sad.

This week’s adventure involved a flight to Armidale and a drive to and from Tenterfield. There were snakes and hornets and some great stories from the Aboriginal sites officers. Also scrambling up and down gullies, a trip to the hospital and the recording of Aboriginal and historical sites. And ghosts and freaky nightmares and burnt saddle and harness emporiums. Also a Lamb and Potato festival in Guyra which was disappointing for its lack of potatoes.

Survivors and descendants of the massacres tell their stories through interviews and re-enactment. The documentary provides eye witness accounts and family stories of events that many records of the massacres leave out. The wikipedia entry for the Coniston massacre as of today mentions only briefly one survivor and instead leans heavily on accounts from the various trials and official records of the time. It’s in need of an update to include the well documented oral history accounts of the massacre.